After that, Balance hurried to the real Rift.
One… two… three… four steps, and he entered the most popular Rift: the Tower Rift.
This Rift had a system like the tower comics, except you didn't need to clear every stage to leave. Once you cleared a stage, you could exit freely. The Tower Rift was created by the gods of Olympus to test our abilities. To keep it from being overcrowded, the entry fee was high.
"My money feels like it's waving goodbye…"
Balance clenched his fists again.
"Come on! For the sake of my money coming back! I have to gather more treasure!"
His voice echoed through the Tower, drawing attention from others. Embarrassed, Balance ran to the first floor to start the challenge.
He sighed. "That was a bad first impression."
On the first battle floor, a small slime appeared in front of him.
"Kyu?!" The slime looked at him curiously, like a small animal seeing something new.
"KYAAAHHH IT'S SO CUTE AGHHHHH!!!" The system screen shook violently, startling Balance.
"Goddess?" Balance asked, already predicting what would happen.
The slime latched onto half the system panel.
"AGHHHH BALANCE!!! EWW THIS IS DISGUSTING! HELP ME!!!"
Balance looked at her with disgust.
"What's with that face?! I'm your Goddess! Help me!" She had accidentally activated the voice button, so now Balance could hear her yelling.
Balance replied flatly: "Then why don't you just shake it off yourself? You're a Goddess. That slime should be like an ant to you."
The system screen turned toward him. "BUT IT'S CUTE 0v0."
"But it's eating your screen!" Balance said, pointing at the slime.
"BUT IT LIKES ME, FULL OF SIN! UNG GUCHI GUCHI GUCHI~" The Goddess rubbed the slime affectionately.
"Graaaahhh!"
The slime squeezed the system tighter.
"AGHH PLEASE BALANCE HUAHHHH!"
Balance tried to pull the slime off, but got stuck with the panel too.
"OWKWKWK LOL, idiot!"
"Shut up, damn Goddess!" Balance snapped.
They both laughed at their own ridiculousness.
"If floor one is already like this, what about the next floors LOL." Balance panted.
"THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A COMEDIAN HAS STAGE FRIGHT—THE JOKES ARE JUST FOR HIMSELF LOL." The Goddess teased.
"Alright, I'll make a tool for this."
Balance created a device.
"This is the Slime Vacuum!" he said in a Doraemon-like tone.
"GIVE IT A BETTER NAME!" the Goddess shouted.
Balance explained: "That's its function! Once the slime is sucked in, they'll…"
"Become pets? 0w0," the Goddess guessed.
Balance finished: "…be teleported into a volcano's lava sea." He grinned wickedly.
"0o0…"
The Goddess fell silent.
Balance continued walking while she stayed speechless.
"This is real slime extermination!" he said, storing the tool in his inventory.
Even as Balance reached floor two, the Goddess was still silent.
He opened the door, light flaring as the new map loaded.
On floor two, the enemies were goblins. The ground felt like his first Rift, but calmer.
"Of course. The Tower Rift is overseen by the gods. Nothing too wild happens here."
Balance placed fake summoning papers, hiding a portal inside.
He began the ritual. "SUMMON!!"
Three giant golems, two to three meters tall, formed from the earth.
The goblins panicked at the sight.
Balance climbed onto a golem's shoulder, provoking them. "Come at me, weaklings!" he laughed like a villain.
KHHIIIIKKKK! The goblins called reinforcements and attacked wildly.
Balance pointed at them, commanding his golems to strike.
Soon after, Balance skipped ahead to floor ten, where the boss was a savage orc. A special teleport was provided for beginners who cleared floors quickly.
Meanwhile, the Goddess was still on floor one, cuddling the slime.
"Kyu?!" The slime looked at the system innocently.
"AGHH COME BACK HERE, LET ME HUG YOU!!!"
She kidnapped the slime, named it Cutety, and gave it a ribbon.
She lifted it like a mother playing airplane with her child. "YOU'RE SO BEAUTIFUL!!!"
She called her assistant, the golden-haired dragon goddess with six wings. "HEY LETICIA!"
Leticia turned. "Did you see my Council?" the Author asked.
Expressionless, Leticia pointed. "He's already on floor ten. You spaced out too long."
"EH REALLY?!" I couldn't believe it.
"Yes. He skipped from floor two to ten," Leticia said.
I slammed my desk. "IS HE STUPID?!"
"Like who? But why panic?" Leticia asked calmly.
I explained quickly: "THE ORC IN THIS WORLD IS IMMUNE TO MAGIC. AND BALANCE—ALL HIS ATTACKS AND SUMMONS COUNT AS MAGIC!"
Leticia looked aside, guilty. "You'd better hurry."
"I know!" I typed frantically.
The system opened a portal beside Balance.
"I thought you were dead," Balance mocked.
The Goddess snapped back: "HMPH, YOU IDIOT. DIDN'T YOU STUDY MONSTER RESISTANCES?"
Balance shook his head innocently.
The Goddess sighed, then explained: "LISTEN. ALL YOUR ATTACKS AND SUMMONS COUNT AS MAGIC. AND THE ORC IS IMMUNE TO MAGIC. SO IF YOU ATTACK, NOTHING WILL HAPPEN."
Balance was shocked.
"Then what do I do? We can't teleport unless we finish."
He reflexively made a trampoline, jumped, grabbed a branch, and climbed up.
The system chimed with a lightbulb emoji.
The Goddess had an idea. "I'LL KILL IT WITH APOLLO'S ARROW!" She rushed to borrow Apollo's weapon while he was sunbathing.
"JUST BORROWING THIS (U)^^."
Apollo noticed too late.
The Goddess drew the arrow.
A blazing arrow fell from the sky, splitting clouds.
The orc froze, then was obliterated in a massive explosion, turning to ash.
Balance gawked in awe and fear.
"HUM HUM, I'M SO COOL," the Goddess bragged.
"You almost destroyed the whole floor," Balance said flatly.
The forest was scorched, only their spot remained.
"NO PROBLEM, I'LL JUST BORROW FROM ZEUS," she grinned.
Balance sighed. "You really don't act like a Goddess… but yeah, you're definitely high-tier."
"Goddess, wasn't that arrow basically magic?" Balance asked.
She explained softly: "No. Apollo's arrows are forged from star-lava, the core of the solar system. They're powerful without magic."
Balance understood.
He planned with her for the next stage.
"Target: floor twenty!"
The system cheered with fireworks and cheerleader chants.
Balance opened the door to floor eleven.
A level 50 monster awaited: Aul.
To be continued.
Indonesian is available on Wattpad